For the Living
by ShardsandAshes
Summary: There is a time to grieve, but there is also a time to live.


**Disclaimer****: I don't own it, and I make no money off of it. Please don't sue me.**

**AN****: This AU story takes place more than a year after the Final Battle. The pairing is Susan Bones/Hannah Abbott. Also in this story is the late Amelia Bones in her portrait form. **

"Is this really what you want, Susan?" Hannah Abbott asked her girlfriend as Susan spent another day slogging through law books in preparation for her apprentice exam.

Susan grimaced, gave the closest stack of books a shove, and buried her hands in her red hair.

"It's what is expected of me. I mean, I'm Amelia Bones' niece. Sure, I'm obviously not cut out to be an auror, but I can at least become an arbiter of the justice she defended her whole life." Susan sighed, staring down at her hands. "It's what she would have wanted."

Hannah caught Susan's ink-stained hands in her own and squeezed them gently. Brown eyes met brown eyes, and Susan's eyes gleamed with unshed tears as they always did when speaking of her aunt.

"Are you so certain of that?" Hannah asked as she tucked Susan's tousled red hair behind her ear. "I'd think that Madam Bones, who lived her life exactly as she wished doing exactly what she felt called to do regardless of what society thought about her, would want you to do what you want to do. Wouldn't she want you to be happy?"

Susan fiddled with the Bones family ring on her finger.

"Well, she isn't exactly here for me to ask, now is she?"

Hannah smiled a little at her girlfriend's snarkiness. It only appeared when Hannah was right about something, and Susan didn't want to admit it. But when Susan continued to stare at the ring, Hannah stood up, dragging the redhead with her.

"You know that you can ask her, and it is long past time that we go see her," she said as she strode from the sitting room, down the hall, and up one flight of stairs as house elves scattered before her. The door was ajar to Amelia Bones' bedroom as though they'd been expected.

Portrait Amelia smiled as Hannah pulled Susan beside her. "So Susan," Amelia asked, "have you figured out yet that you are not meant for the law field?"

For a moment, Susan simply stared. "You couldn't have told me that earlier?"

Amelia chuckled at her niece's petulant tone. "Would it have done any good?"

Susan scowled, and Hannah laughed at her. "No, I wouldn't have listened," Susan admitted. You know that I've always been stubborn."

Amelia's navy blue eyes softened. "You come by it honestly, not only from me, but also from your parents."

Susan swallowed hard, and Amelia did not miss how Hannah immediately reached out to pull her niece into an embrace, running her fingers through Susan's red hair. She had suspected that her niece shared her own inclinations, and now it was clear that Hannah Abbott was indeed something more than just a good friend to Susan.

When the two women glanced back at her again, Susan saw the knowing gleam in her aunt's eye. Managing a smile, Susan tightened her arm around Hannah's waist.

"So if I told you that, in addition to quitting the study of law and apprenticing with Poppy Pomfrey to become a healer, I also intend to marry Hannah on New Year's Day, you wouldn't be upset?"

Portrait Amelia laughed, and Susan felt the tears prick her eyes again. She'd never forgotten her aunt's laughter.

"Susan, the only thing that would upset me would be if you two do not find a way to bring my portrait to the wedding!" She turned to look at the blond witch standing with her niece. "I will be pleased to have you as a member of our family." A shadow seemed to pass over Amelia's face. "I don't suppose the two of you have discussed having children?"

Startled, Hannah glanced at Susan and said, "We have, actually, though whether we would carry them ourselves or perform a blood adoption is something we haven't settled yet." Hannah looked more closely at the elder witch. "Why are you asking now?"

Portrait Amelia sighed. "My lover and I never took the chance. It was never the right time, for marriage, for children, for family. And then, there was no more time left." She paused, and the younger witches watched in shock as Amelia absently brushed tears from her cheeks. "Of all the things I regret in my life, that is what I regret the most. Don't make the same mistake I made."

Susan and Hannah blinked hard, but the tears came anyway.

"We won't. We promise," Hannah whispered.

"Aunt, who was your lover?" Susan asked when the expectant silence had stretched too long.

Amelia smiled, but the smile did not reach her eyes this time.

"Minerva McGonagall."


End file.
